dge Turner's house."

The eavesdroppers continued to listen, but the conversation between
Judge Nelson and Mr. Seward was carried on in such low tones that they
could make little of it. Now and again they caught a phrase--"more
troops"--"President Lincoln"--"save the Union,"--but the purport of the
matter was beyond them.

The spying youngsters crept into their beds that night laden with a
sense of mystery in this weird consultation, of which they had been
witnesses, between the senior justice of the Supreme Court of the United
States and the Secretary of State of the United States. Next day they
boasted among their comrades of having discovered some secret affair of
state.

Years afterward, through Justice Nelson's son, Judge R. R. Nelson of St.
Paul, Minnesota, it came out that these young spies had rightly divined
the truth. The conference which the Secretary of State held with Justice
Nelson during the small hours of the morning of August 22nd, 1863, was
had at the instance of President Lincoln, and was importantly related to
the conduct of the Civil War. The conference itself, in fact, was the
secret motive of the diplomatic excursion, which had been designed
especially to divert attention from it.

It seems that the administration at Washington had become greatly
worried over a situation that had developed concerning the drafting of
troops. A heavy draft had been ordered,--Otsego county had been called
upon to furnish nearly a thousand men,--and there was great excitement
throughout the northern states. At this critical juncture one of
Justice Nelson's associates on the bench, who was sitting in the United
States Circuit in Pennsylvania, had granted a writ of _habeas corpus_
directing a certain drafted man to be brought before him, and the
position taken by counsel was that the draft was unconstitutional and
illegal. This justice, like Nelson, belonged to the Democratic party,
and was therefore in many ways opposed to the Lincoln administration. He
was known to entertain opinions which might lead him to decide that the
draft was unconstitutional.

President Lincoln became apprehensive, and sent for Secretary Seward.

"We must have more troops," said the President, "and we can get them in
only one way. Now if this draft should be declared unconstitutional, it
would create a most serious state of affairs at the North, and would
greatly encourage the South; it might even defeat our efforts to save
the Union. I